SC State Alumni Newsletter — Keeping the Legacy Alive
“So Hard!”
June 2026 • Vol. 5 • City Ced EditionLambert Givens Beats Bobby Flay on Food Network!
We want to give a big Bulldog shoutout to former Bulldog Lambert Givens, who battled celebrity chef Bobby Flay on Food Network’s “Beat Bobby Flay.” The show’s judges chose the seafood gumbo Givens made over Bobby’s version in an August 2022 episode.
📸 Chef Lambert Givens — Bulldog in the kitchen, beating Bobby Flay on Food Network
Is Coach Chennis Berry Off to the Best Coaching Start in MEAC History?
Next, we turn our attention to current Head Coach Chennis Berry. The question being asked is a strong one:
📸 HBCU Gameday — Is Chennis Berry off to the hottest coaching start in MEAC history?
That is a conversation worth having, and it speaks to the energy, leadership, and momentum Coach Berry is bringing to Bulldog football. Click below to read the full story and join the conversation.
Read the HBCU Gameday Story ↗The Champions Who Changed South Carolina
50 Years • December 11, 1976 • The Bicentennial Bowl • Richmond, VirginiaThere are great victories, and then there are victories that echo through generations.
Fifty years ago this year, on a cold December afternoon in Richmond, Virginia, South Carolina State University did something no college football team in the history of this state had ever done. On December 11, 1976, the Bulldogs defeated Norfolk State in the Bicentennial Bowl and became the first college football team from South Carolina to win a national championship.
To understand the magnitude of that achievement, you must remember the time in which it happened. America was celebrating its bicentennial, yet South Carolina was still healing from wounds that ran deep. Just eight years earlier, the Orangeburg Massacre had shaken the state and scarred a community. Hope often seemed harder to find than headlines.
This story continues every week through the end of the year
Before I get into this story, let me tell you something. I was nervous. Not butterflies-in-your-stomach nervous. Not first-day-at-school nervous. I’m talking about don’t-mess-this-up nervous.
Because this week on the Vodcast, we sat down with a living legend: Coach Willie Jeffries.
▶ Watch the Vodcast ↗I had pages of questions ready. I had notes. I had stories. I had plans. Then Coach popped up on the screen, and suddenly I was trying to remember my own name.
Coach Jeffries is 90 years old. We did the interview over Zoom, and Coach logged onto his iPad by himself. No assistant. No grandkids helping. No technical support hotline. Just Coach. — Meanwhile, I once forgot to hit record on my very first Vodcast. Coach 1. Technology 0.
Book of the Week
The follow-up to Can’t Hurt Me. Goggins goes deeper into the mindset of relentless self-improvement, mental toughness, and refusing to accept limits. If you want to understand what it truly means to never quit — this book is for you. Iron sharpens iron, Bulldogs.
Learn More ↗Don’t miss a single home game! Lock in your seats and pack the stands with Bulldog pride all season long.
Get Season Tickets ↗Come back and give back. Goal: 100 new members by end of summer. Keep the HBCU culture alive for those coming behind us!
Pay Online ↗ or Zelle: [email protected]We can’t just talk about it — we have to be about it. Read the story and find out how you can be part of building the future.
Read the Story ↗Tee it up for a legend and support Bulldog athletics. Grab your spot before it fills up!
Register Now ↗